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Comment by noxToken | Hacker News Reader

IF you like a smart TV but not the smart features (but have no dumb alternative), then don't connect it to the Internet. Now it's just a dumb TV.

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I guess the smart features don't add a huge amount to the purchase price but it would be nice not to have to pay for a bunch of features I don't need.

No TV tuner, no WiFi, no ethernet, no loudspeakers. Just a great quality display with a few HDMIs please.

> guess the smart features don't add a huge amount to the purchase price

They reduce it, because having one do-it-all device increases units/SKU and decreases the contribution of fixed costs to the minimum unit cost needed to break even, and competition prevents charging excessive premiums across most commodity models.

I think that’s called a computer monitor

I know why you're getting down voted, but you're not exactly wrong. There used to be TVs and video monitors, and then there were computer monitors. They were all CRTs. The computer monitors were way more expensive than TVs partly due to being progressive scan vs interlaced. Televisions had low resolution and included things like speakers and tuners. Video monitors could be had with much higher resolution for post/broadcast facilities even though they were still interlaced.

It wasn't until everything went flat screen where "TVs", computer monitors, video monitors became so interchangeable. However, there's really not many 72" computer monitors to fill up the space in my living room.

For a while, computer monitors were limited by the HDTV specs, but a computer monitor usually has better specs - often resolution, refresh rate, display lag, connectivity options, etc.

The smart TVs still have a slow and clunky UI before you connect them to the internet.

Except of course that dumb TVs used to at least offer programme guide. Now you can't even get that without an internet connection

The only program guide I've seen on a dumb TV is the scrolling display from my cable provider - which it displays over HDMI, not internet.

If it's displaying anything from the internet, then I don't think it's still a "dumb TV".

In countries that use DVB-T or ISDB-T broadcasts there is over the air programme guide information for the TV to show

In the UK certainly, the programme guide is available over the air on dumb TVs.

There is a system for TV Meta Data to be sent over the air and TVs with tuners used to be able to read this data and create an on screen guide. I had this on one of the first HDTVs I got but haven't seen it since

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_and_System_Information...

They still do. My ota setup gets it just fine

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